Sylvia Convey, artist
exhibitions, collections, selected bibliography

Sylvia Convey with her prize-winning painting at the Albury Regional Art Centre, 1980

It flowed through us by Sylvia Convey, monoprint (1997)

Sylvia Convey at Tallandoon

Washed up by Sylvia Convey, three-colour etching (1990)

Tony Convey, Professor Colin Rhodes & Sylvia Convey, Callan Park Gallery, SCA, opening night, Hypergraphica, 2014

Born: 1948 Itzehoe, Germany of Latvian parents

Sylvia’s career spans more than 40 years and includes painting, drawing, print-making, sculpture, assemblage, art quilts, art dolls, wearable art, contemporary jewellery, sound recording, documentary film, and teaching.
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Solo exhibitions

Sylvia has had 25 solo exhibitions, including:

1986 Coloured Life, Bitumen River Gallery, Canberra
1988  Hair of the Dog, Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra
1989  Secret Joys, Disposals Gallery, Wagga Wagga
1989 Secret Realm, Young Artists Gallery, MOCA, Brisbane
1996 Spirit Hand, Fibre Design Gallery, Goulburn
2000 Doll Dream, Threads Gallery, Canberra
2011  Cattywampus, Gallery Stimuleye, Melbourne
2012  Rummaged, Gallery Stimuleye, Melbourne
2013  Crossing the line, Gallery Stimuleye, Melbourne
2014  Embellish, Gallery Stimuleye, Melbourne Group Exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Sylvia has participated in numerous group shows between 1979 and 2014, including:

1974 Canberra Theatre Centre Gallery
1976 Arts Council Gallery, Sydney
1983-84 Wonderland toured NSW Regional Galleries
1984 Australian Naives, Rainsford Gallery, Sydney
1984 Post Atomic Card Show, Bitumen River Gallery, Canberra
1984 This Year’s Model, Bitumen River Gallery, Canberra
1984 The Sexuality Show, Canberra Institute of the Arts Gallery, Canberra
1985 Off the Beach, Bitumen River Gallery, Canberra
1985 Psychotik, Bitumen River Gallery, Canberra
1986 Staff Show, Canberra Institute of the Arts Gallery, Canberra
1986 Scanned Image, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
1986 Drawings, Praxis, Fremantle
1986 Printed Image, Bitumen River Gallery, Canberra
1987 True Signs, Art Zone, Adelaide
1987 The Word, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
1988 Australian Art Now, Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra
1988 Staff Show, Canberra Institute of the Arts Gallery, Canberra
1988-89 Print Project, toured ACT, NSW, Victoria
1989 Ephemeral Art, Iwalewa Haus Bayreuth, West Germany
1989 Australian Art Brut, Gallerie Cannibal Pierce, Paris, France
1989 Spitten Chips, Gorman House Community Arts Centre, Canberra
1989  Outsider Art from Europe, Aust & US, Bockley Gallery Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
1990  Fifteen Australian Outsider Artists, Orange Regional Gallery, Orange
1990 Pacific Rim Bookworks Exhibition, toured USA, Australia and Japan
1990  Sun, Smoke and Steel, toured galleries throughout Australia
1991  Seven Australian Outsider Artists, Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW
1991 Raw Vision, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore
1991  The Convey Family, Gallery Art Naïve, Melbourne
1992  A Cerebral Odyssey, James Harvey Gallery, Balmain, NSW
1993  Three Australian Outsider Artists, Imago Site de la Creation, Begles, France
1993 Wild, Tin Shed Gallery, Sydney University, NSW
1993  Refusing Any Annexation, Wollongong Regional Gallery, NSW
1994  Australian Naïve Art, Barry Stern GaIIery, Sydney
1994 The Naives, Libby Edwards Gallery, Melbourne
1994  Relatively Speaking, James Harvey Gallery, Sydney
1995  Les Jardiniers de la memoiré, Site de la Création Franche, Bègles, France
1995 Ding, Dang & Don't, Leichhardt Street Gallery, Sydney
1998  Classy Clobber, Treadles Gallery, Kingston, Canberra
1999  Raw Art, Australian Naïve Art Gallery, Darlinghurst, Sydney
2004 CMAG Collection: Studio One Prints, Canberra
2007 Australian Outsiders, Halle St. Pierre, Paris, France
2010  Thirteen Australian Outsider Artists, Callan Park Gallery, Sydney
2011  On the Outer, Gallery Stimuleye, Richmond, Melbourne
2011  Monoprints, Gallery Stimuleye, Richmond, Melbourne
2012  Salvage, Gallery Stimuleye, Richmond, Melbourne
2012  Beyond the Surface, Gallery Stimuleye, Richmond, Melbourne
2013  A Matter of Perspective, Gallery Stimuleye, Richmond, Melbourne
2014  Rainbows and Darkness, Gallery Stimuleye, Richmond, Melbourne
2O14 Quibble, Gallery Stimuleye, Richmond, Melbourne

Collections include

Albury Regional Gallery, NSW; Tallangatta Shire Council, Victoria; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Canberra Museum and Art Gallery Collection, Canberra; Neuve Invention Gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland; Iwalewa Haus, University of Bayreuth, Germany; STOARC Archive, Sydney College of the Arts, NSW; Latvian Museum of Naïve Art, Latvia.

Selected bibliography

1980 Days of Gold, Tony Convey [Thompsons] Albury
1983 Wonderland, Audray Banfield [Albury Regional Arts Centre]
1986 Unreal City, Stephanie Radok, eX de Medici (eds) [Bitumen River Gallery] Canberra
1987 Earth, Skin Heart, Sylvia Convey, Andrew Powell, and Tony Convey [Heart Press]
1987 Tall Tales, Sylvia Convey, Andrew Powell [Heart Press]
1988 UnreaI City, Stephanie Radok, eX de Medici [eds] [Canberra Contemporary Art Space]
1988 Print Project, Basil Hall [Studio One] Canberra
1988 Outsider Art in Australia, Ulli Beier, Philip Hammial [edsJ [Special Issue of Aspect]
1989 The Magic Eye and its Dream Rivers, Stephen Convey, Sylvia Convey, Anthony Mannix, Tony Convey [Iwalewa Haus], Bayreuth 1989 Outsider Kunst Aus Australien, Ulli Beier [Iwalewa Haus] Bayreuth 1989 Australian Art Brut: An Art Beyond Intimidation, Ken Shepherd [Gallerie Cannibal Pierce]
1990 Artists and Galleries of Australia, Max Germaine [ed] [Craftsman House]
1990 15 Australian Outsider Artists, Peter O'Neill [Orange Regional Gallery]
1991 7 Australian Outsider Artists, AngeIa Wong [Grafton RegionaI GaIIery] 1991 Sun, Smoke and Steel, Basil Hall [Studio One] Canberra
1991 Cross Currents, Judith Hoffberg [Umbrella Associates] Pasadena California
1992 Scarp21, R.K. Pretty [ed] [University of Wollongong] 1994 Australian Naïve Art, Sandra Warner [Craftsman House]
1994 The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch [eds] [Allen and Unwin]
1994 Australian Printmaking in the 90s, Sasha Grishin [Craftsman House] Sydney
1999 Allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon Vol 21 [K.G. Verlag] Munich
2006 The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions [The Miegunyah Press] Melbourne 

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